Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Up there among the best Gigondas I've ever reviewed, the 2018 Gigondas le Poste combines considerable complexity with incredible intensity and adds a seductive measure of suppleness without sacrificing length or focus. Violet and aniseed aromas accent plums and black cherries on the nose, while the palate is full-bodied and velvety in texture, with a long, silky finish that folds in notes of salted licorice.
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Wine Enthusiast
Sourced from limestone soils and higher elevations than Saint Cosme’s other flagship Gigondas bottlings, Le Poste offers ripe but luminescent red-plum and mulberry flavors. While concentrated, it’s an intensely mineral wine lifted by sprays of salt and ore. The finish is dramatic, elongated by drapes of blackberry satin and ripe, furry tannins. At peak now through 2030, the wine is likely to hold further still. Editors' Choice.
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Wine & Spirits
Le Poste is a steep 2.5 acres of limestone soils planted in 1963 at a cool elevation of 918 feet. The vines at the site seem to have ignored the stress of the vintage, providing fruit for a wine that’s as elegant as it is monumental. It feels all of a piece, a sweeping expanse of flavor that touches on foie gras and leg of lamb, figs and cherries. The flavors contrast freshness and funk, light and dark, lasting and lifted with a structural gravitas that promises to carry the wine for many years in the cellar.
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Wine Spectator
Packed, with a core of steeped plum, boysenberry and blackberry confiture flavors layered nicely with violet, anise and applewood notes. Dense but vibrant throughout, with a bundle of energetic grip on the finish that melds nicely with the fruit. Deeply buried minerality lurks at the very end. This should be long-lived. Best from 2022 through 2036.
With bold fruit flavors and accents of sweet spice, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre form the base of the classic Rhône Red Blend, while Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise often come in to play. Though they originated from France’s southern Rhône Valley, with some creative interpretation, Rhône blends have also become popular in other countries. Somm Secret—Putting their own local spin on the Rhône Red Blend, those from Priorat often include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In California, it is not uncommon to see Petite Sirah make an appearance.
The Southern Rhône region of Gigondas extends northwest from the notably jagged wall of mountains called the Dentelles di Montmirail, whose highest point climbs to about 2,600 feet. The region and its wines have much in common with the neighboring Chateauneuf-du-Pape except that the vineyards of Gigondas exist at higher elevation and its soils, comprised mainly of crumbled limestone from the Dentelles, often produce a more dense and robust Grenache-based red wine.
The region has a history of fine winemaking, extending back to Roman times. But by the 20th century, Gigondas was merely lumped into the less distinct zone of Côtes du Rhône Villages. However, it was first among these satellite villages to earn its own appellation, which occurred in 1971.
Gigondas reds must be between 50 to 100% Grenache with Syrah and Mourvèdre comprising the bulk of the remainder of the blend. They tend express rustic flavors and aromas of wild blackberry, raspberry, fig, plum, as well as juniper, dried herbs, anise, smoke and river rock. The best are bold but balanced, and finish with impressively sexy and velvety tannins.
The Gigondas appellation also produces rosé but no white wines.